Sunday, November 18, 2012

One of these days after Scott Walker's laissez-faire crowd moves back to their private-sector jobs - - the DNR's air management division chief had stints with the WMC, road-builders and home builders - - we'll have a state government that addresses environmental matters beyond telling us, after the fact, that the air we are breathing on our Sunday walks in the parks or in deer-hunting forays has hit an unhealthy range.

This "advisory" for levels of particulate matter in the air harmful for certain groups went into effect at 7:00 a.m. The notice arrived by email from the DNR through an alert system I registered for, as can anyone, at 9:11 a.m. One of Walker's DNR early actions - - noted here not long after his 2011 inaguration - - was the elimination of the existing system of early-warning alerts when air quality conditions were heading for the unhealthy range.

A 131-minute delay for children, seniors and people with heart and breathing issues is unconscionable.

Worse - - this notice is still not up on the Journal Sentinel's website (posted later in the morning) - - so understaffed Sunday newsrooms added to the slow distribution of vital data and undermined the paper's cheery forecast about "beautiful weather" ahead posted 34 minutes after the DNR alert went into effect.

And I've lost track of the number of times I've posted these dirty air alerts with Walker's scandalous policy as context.

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James Rowen's Bio

James Rowen, a writer and consultant, has worked for newspapers, and as the senior Mayoral staffer, in Madison and Milwaukee, WI. This blog began on 2/2/ 2007. Posts run also at various news sites, including The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel's "Purple Wisconsin."

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